Customer Reviews

Azerbaijan : A Quest for Identity

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just finished reading this book and although it has been written at the end of the millenium, the book hasn't lost any urgency describing the difficulties Azerbaijan and the Azeri people face. Most people in the West tend to ignore the legacy the Soviet Union has left behind and this has led to many errors in the field of economy and diplomacy in the past decades. Charles van der Leeuw is much more aware of these historical factors and his description of the Karabakh conflict is a refreshing one. He is able to point to many, nowadays all but forgotten errors of judgement made by the UN and OSCE, but also by Russia and other powers involved in the South Caucasus. It is a shame this work was never followed up with more insightful books on Azerbaijan, because this is badly needed.

Each side of the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia has totaly politized the history of this area. This book is a decent attempt to parse the history of this politicially contentious area. It seems that the previous review disagrees with the Mr. van der Leeuw's attempt at neutrality.

This is a great book about azerbaijani nation. Regarding the revue by 'lusine', I totally support C. Anderson's point. She seems to be emotional about the whole Azerbaijani-Armenian thing and therefore cannot be objective in her review.

Mr. Van Der Leeuw's book is incredibly clear in one thing - his enviable ability to turn a deaf ear and a blind eye. The worst breech of one's responsibility as a scholar is the inability to record objective reality, a failure that is in itself remarkable in the book. Aside from all the overt signs of successful braiwashing that the author has apparently undergone by his Azeri counterparts, he makes such glaring historical and political errors in the book that even a person with no background in history or political science (such as myself) will immediately pick up on them. The range of errors is almost anecdotal, I have never read a book that makes so many on such few pages. I would recommend that Mr. Van Der Leeuw consults a few relatively objective sources - beginning with a simple Britannica consultation about basic facts in the region and revises the book, unless amusement and harmless ironization is the objective of his writing.